


Curious minds must know

by Radi_skull320



Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-03-10 05:23:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3278342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Radi_skull320/pseuds/Radi_skull320
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Given the diversity of his Chargers, Iron Bull considers himself knowledgeable about other races and cultures of Thedas.  It turns out Dalish isn't very helpful on supplying such information as Iron Bull works with the Elven Inquisitor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Curious minds must know

At Haven, the Herald was always hard to find.  Iron Bull was learning this about his new employer.  Solas would mention that he would see her most often with the potions master and Josephine would complain that she was bothering her assistant’s research.  Bull remembered that she was a curious little thing.  An elf mage, who didn’t care much for water.  She had made that very clear when she had had to come all the way to the Storm Coast to meet with them.  There had been a quick mission there and Bull noted that it wasn’t panic that set in her features when they had come across the giant and dragon locked it battle, but curiosity.

It was intriguing to him, her odd reactions to events people should probably run away from.  He noticed that her face was very expressive, Ben Hassrath training seemed utterly unnecessary when trying to read her.  Yet she was awfully secretive, always writing when she could and staying out of view of her advisors.  Although she hated making decisions, he noticed that she liked to ask as many questions as possible about situations.  Often in rapid-fire succession.  It was the only way she made advisors feel just as dazed as she did in those situations.  

While at Haven, Bull had taken to judging Cullen’s training exercises and poking at Cassandra to see how mad he could make her.  One a particularly bright day, he saw the Herald running around.  This was an incredibly rare sight as she was usually corralled by her advisors for whatever catastrophe required her attention.  But there against the snow, like an out of place rabbit, was the elf gathering whatever plants happened to be living in the cold.  Bull watched her in the distance as she moved around like a wild animal, pausing when she found something interesting.  Suddenly her lavender eyes caught his and he smiled at her.

 _What a tiny thing_. He thought as she approached him.  Her head reached his chest on a good day.

“Aren’t you cold?” She said without introduction.

“I’m sorry?” Bull had already prepared his mindless greeting, not this.

“Do you ever wear shirts?” Her lavender eyes were flitting all about him.

“I mean, they are hard to get on.” He pointed up. “Horns.”

“Oh right.” He realized she was looking directly into his eyes and getting closer.  “Does it hurt?”

“No shirts? The cold?” Bull was getting more confused by the second.  She didn’t have much understanding of personal space either.  He didn’t mind of course, he just documented it away in this observations about her.

“Well I mean those could, particularly the cold hence the question earlier.  But that?” she made a tiny pointing motion at the eyepatch.

“Oh this old thing? Naw anything is worth it for a friend.” He gave a quick glance at Krem.  “I saw that.” He added. The Herald guiltily withdrew her tiny hand from waving in front of the eye patch.

“Er...um...really?”

“More I heard you, you just have loud bones or something.” He looked at the Herald, her eyes glistening with curiosity not quite sated.  There was nothing his Ben-Hassrath training could detect, no layers to be read.

_Far too innocent for sure._

“Anything else I can answer for ya? I didn’t realize I would be the one relentlessly questioned at the Inquisition.”

“Oh,” She took a small step back, but she was still just under him.  She stopped angling her head around trying to peek under the eyepatch.  “Sorry I do get carried away sometimes.” She shrugged her shoulders.  “Some things I just have to know.”

“It’s alright boss,” Bull paused in contemplation. “As long as I can ask a couple of my own.”

“I suppose that is only fair.” She idly tucked a stray strand of brown hair behind a pointed ear.  She clutched a series of scrolls and a small satchel of herbs from the day in the crook of her elbow.  Bull filed away how dainty it made her look.  

“You’re awfully hard to catch, Herald-”

“Please,” She motioned to hush him and looked around a little worried.  “Call me Lethea.”

_Well that’s a nice name._

“Is someone hiding?” Bull drew his arms to his chest and grinned at her.

“Well not exactly, it’s not hiding if they don’t notice me around.” Lethea said hushedly.  “They can’t honestly think I make good decisions about these things.  I’d wish they’d stop hanging on my every word.”

Iron Bull had to laugh.  This was the Herald of Andraste, his boss, just a sneaky little elf shirking her responsibilities.  

“What would you rather be doing then?”

“Well I found these notes from Adan’s assistant, I think? I don’t remember.  But they are potions and I wanted to read over them.  Hopefully make them.  Anything that doesn’t make me use magic so often is pretty great.”  Lethea had said this all in one breath, leaving Bull reeling and processing.

“Well you could pick up a weapon,” Iron Bull let out nonchalantly.  All mages reminded of Vints, although looking at Lethea he knew she could never be that.  She looked a little hurt and was now examining his shoes.  “I just figured, you were an archer or something.  You have your hunting goddess markings on your face.”

She offered him a confused look.  

“It’s actually of Dirthamen, the secret keeper, like what Dalish has.  Mine’s an older style though.”

“Wait really?”  Iron Bull took her tiny chin in his large hand and tilted her face from side to side, examining.  She was oddly pliant to the sudden gesture while he admired the dark marks on her freckled skin.  He noted that she looked rather bookish, odd for an elf raised in the wilds.  Sure enough, there were the wisp-like markings by the edges of her mouth.  He grinned mischievously at her.  “Huh, so it is.  Brings out your sweet, pouty lips.  Excuse me I have to beat up Dalish for lying to me.”

Iron Bull pretended not to notice, but Lethea was left frozen in place for a good moment while he walked off.  Unfortunately this left her open for discovery and Cullen approached her with a report.

“You want me to decide what now?!” Iron Bull heard her in the distance and smiled to himself.

 

____

 

It was unfortunate how they came to Skyhold, but fortunate that they did.  It was much larger than Haven, offering a space for everyone.  The larger size, however, did not offer the Lavellan more ways to hide.  After a few missions, Bull would see his boss gratefully head toward her room only to be intercepted inches from the door.  She had survived an avalanche and a magister, but could not escape the tracking eyes of Josephine.  

Secret keeper, interesting. Bull realized it made a bit of sense for Dalish, with the constant lying.  But with Lavellan, it made a bit less sense.  Her face seemed too earnest for hiding secrets, she seemed to have trouble hiding herself!  Of the possibilities he would have figured she could bear the marks of the craftsman for the way she wove magic together or the Halla mother as she sometimes tended to wounds.

 _What is the secret you are keeping little Lavellan?_ He would think to himself when he watched her attempt to keep her face from panicking while on her throne.

On a particularly quiet day, Bull noticed someone new in his tavern.  They were fully covered in a cloak from head to toe but strongly smelt of crushed leaves and burnt parchment.  Dainty elvhen fingers turned the pages of a large book amongst the clamour.

“You should come by here more often.” Bull sat down beside Lavellan and she began to hiss in protest.  “Don’t worry I won’t give you away, I’ll leave you to...whatever you’re doing.”  He eyed one of the large books on the table.  “Reading something this intricate will give you away as not a normal patron here.”

“I can’t help it,” She looked up at him revealing the exhaustion in her features, but eagerness in her eyes to soak up the knowledge on the pages. “It’s not like the Dalish keep many books.”  She returned to the text on the pages.  “I have to know!”

Iron Bull would read her face if he had to, but it was all written there.  She didn’t want to lead, but she was.  She didn’t know how to stop Corypheus, but she had to.  Her finding a new pastime in reading was terribly cute.

“Well since you’re here, let me get you something.” He stood up.

“But I-”

“Come on! You’re drinking water in a tavern, that is unacceptable.”

Bull returned with what he considered to be a normal sized glass but required both of Lethea’s hands to steady and move off of the loose leaves of parchment.  

There was the quick patter of footsteps down the stairs and Sera appeared unannounced.  She stealthily made her way to the other side of the Inquisitor.  

“An you dinn’t think to get any fer me?” Lethea looked at her in a small panic.  “Oh don’t you worry Lavelly, I won’t tell no one.  Let’s just drink up for the night.”

Bull and Sera gleefully recounted one of their recent battles together.  As the night continued on, Lethea removed her cloak and joined in their flailing re-enactments.  Bull found himself admiring her lithe body as Sera mimicked the tackling movement of one of the Val Royeaux guards.  To keep from breaking things, they move to commenting about Lethea’s advisors.

“Like hawks, yea?” Sera made swooping sounds.  “All over you all the time.  I bet Cullen’s pushing to be all over you, yea?”

Lethea laughed.  “Oh please, such a large feathery mantle, he must me making up for something.”

The comment bubbled an unexpected laugh from Sera.  Bull smacked Lathea’s shoulder in a guffaw. “Haha, I didn’t know you had it you boss!”

Even though she had made the comment, Bull noticed that she laughed a little uneasily.

“Speaking of uptight, Cole ever give Candy a go Bull?”  Sera asked gleefully, however Bull groaned in response.

“It’s a lost cause, plenty of other people that need to be unwound you know?” Lethea tried to sound comforting toward Bull.  “Many of us are far too busy for that sort of thing anyway.” It was a quiet comment said into her mug, but Bull caught it and raised an eyebrow.  She stood up, much to Sera’s dismay.

“Where you goin now Lavelly, it’s so late!”

“Leliana leaves papers on my desk, I’d rather not know how, before I sleep.” The Inquisitor sighed.

“Do you ever sleep?” Sera was inspecting her suddenly empty glass.

“I do try.  It is rather difficult.” Lethea admitted and took a long final swig from whatever Bull had brought her for this round. “Also Josephine insisted on the large windows.  It’s cold and I worry everyone can see me.”

“Clearly it’s all your light reading.” Bull said, picking up the larger book with a free hand.  As he did, a smaller book tumbled onto the floor.  “You carry around more than one...oh.” Bull paused looking down at the smaller book and raised it into the candle light.  It was was Varric’s steamy best-seller.  “In depth research I see?”

Lethea blinked hard and looked over at the book.  Bull watched her eyes dart between his face and the cover of the tome.  He admired the intense scarlet that spread all the way to her ears.

“I-I…” She sputtered, but could think of nothing.  Instead she launched herself onto Bull straining to reach for the book.  With her reaction time too dulled from alcohol, Bull dangled the book just out of her reach.  

“Ah whatever boss.” She was now strewn across his lap and he gingerly patted the small of her back.  She was terribly warm.  “Everyone needs time to themselves you know haha.”

 _What a spankable arse._ The topic of self-pleasure beginning to color the scene of the struggling Inquisitor beneath him.  

“Wait? No! It’s not like that!” She began to squirm on his lap, still reaching for the book.  “I’m... learning about the Champion!”  Bull relented and put the book in her grasp.  She quickly stood up, snatching her parchments and clinging them to her chest.  “I should go.” She said to the floor guiltily.  Glancing for a quick second back at Bull’s face, he grinned back at her.  She gasped and darted off.  Bull could have guessed she was not conversant about dealings with her body, but this was just too fun.

“So much for our little bookworm.” Sera began.

“I bet she’s ‘reading’ into the wee hours of the morning.” Bull couldn’t shake the image of her on the bed through the glass windows.  Hands working feverishly against the threat of morning.

_Mmm that would be a sight._

“Someone wanted boss all drunk tonight, yea?” Sera elbowed him in the side.

Bull thought to himself, initially he wanted Lethea to relax.  But the fact that the tiny bookish Inquisitor was pleasuring herself to dirty novels meant that she should be plenty relaxed.  

_I see, dirty secret keeper Lavellan._

 

_____

 

Just about everyone was actively looking for the Inquisitor these days.  The party would only see her when she summoned them for missions, but somehow she always disappeared afterward.  In addition, servants began complaining that the castle was haunted, claiming to see wisps of spirit and strong gusts of wind but no one there.  Sera was particularly uneasy and refused to travel down dark hallways.  Iron Bull was not one for superstition, but he had felt some strong wind these days too.  He really hoped there weren’t demons in the castle, that would just be his luck.  He began to avoid places people had reported such things.  Despite how much he wanted to thank Lethea for the recent dragon slaying, he couldn’t find her either.

One night he caught a glimpse of Lethea down a hall, her lavender eyes reflecting available light as she watched him from a distance.  He minded his own business in the great hall just outside Solas’s room, hoping Lethea would approach.  He glanced back to where he had just seen her, only to find her gone.  Solas had emerged from his room and began to snicker at Bull’s crestfallen expression.

“And what do you find so funny?” Bull nearly spat.  He didn’t care for Solas, he thought he was weird for sure.

“I’m just amused at how superstitious everyone is getting.” He rubbed his chin absentmindedly and grinned.  

“You know something?” Bull stood up quickly and looked down at the elf.  “Is this your doing? You letting some crazy spirit shit happen at our home base?”

“So quick to jump to conclusions!” Solas looked at him in feigned surrender. “You know I’m not all for offering spirits opportunities to go against their nature.  I suggest you face your fears. Maybe you will find the Inquisitor!”

“So help me, if they’ve got her caught up in some stupid ass Fade crap-” Iron Bull balled his fist in irritation.

“So barbaric, yes go punch it into submission if we are going to go with this hypothesis.” Solas turned to go inside. “If you’d all just take a moment to think!”  And he slammed the door.

Bull gave it some thought.  The likelihood of demons or Fade tears in Skyhold itself did seem unreasonable, especially with the Inquisitor closing them left and right.  She could close something tiny in Skyhold in her sleep.  He would take Krem and Dalish to investigate one of the “haunted” areas.

There were several guards that refused to stand at their post now, they had reported the visible orb zooming behind them at night.  Krem and Bull would stand guard and Dalish would watch over them for back up.  

“Do you really believe this place could be haunted, chief?” Krem said skeptically.  

“Look everyone’s worried,” Bull sighed, tired of the topic.  “I said I’d check this out.”  They were quiet for a bit, staring out into the darkness.

“I saw the Inquisitor the other day.” Krem mentioned quietly.

“You did?! Why didn’t you get me?” Bull turned to face his companion.

“Do I have to get you everytime I see Scout Harding too?” Krem laughed.  “You could always get in line outside Lavellan’s door behind her advisors.”

“Ugh the point is I’m not her advisor, I don’t want to be another pest pawing at her for her time.” Bull resumed his position, just a little more defeated.  “Nah I’ll wait, she’ll come to me eventually.”

“Really?” Krem raised an eyebrow.  “Mr. takes-what-he-wants is gonna wait?  Pawing is what you do best.”

“That’s Ser Takes-what-he-wants to you!” Bull shook his finger at him.  “I never take, I always ask.  Rules of the Qun, don’t you forget that.”

Suddenly there was a loud crack and a pitched snap of reality being slammed together.  A powerful gust of wind, as if something was moving more rapidly than humanly possible, nearly knocked Krem off his feet.  They looked toward the direction it appeared to be heading. The door to Cullen’s office was swinging violently on its hinges.  They all heard prying on the opposite locked door out of Cullen’s office.  

“It’s solid!” Bull laughed in anticipation.  “Some little thief has gotta come back and I’m gonna catch them.”  He stood facing the door, his whole body took up the complete width of the guardsmen’s walkway.  It would have to go through him.

“Ser! I think its just-” Dalish came scrambling over the barracks but it was too late. The loud crack and snap was heard again and a bright blue wisp came straight for Iron Bull.  The wisp got larger and larger, suddenly he was hit with the full force of Lavellan exiting a Fade step.  She bounced right off of him and onto the ground in a flurry of parchment.  

“Inquisitor?!” Krem and Iron Bull exclaimed at the figure on the ground.  Lavellan groaned and tried to sit up.  White flowing night clothes pooled all around her and she half attempted to reach for nearby parchment.  She looked like she was considering unconsciousness.

“Um, yea.  I guess she’s been Fade-stepping through Skyhold not to be seen.  I HEAR that’s a thing mages do.” Dalish mentioned sheepishly.

“DAMMIT DALISH!” Bull rubbed his temples.  “Do you realize how helpful that blighted information would have been if you had shared it with, I don’t know, ANYONE?!”

“Not now, chief.” Krem was trying to tend to Lavellan.  “I think you should take her somewhere she can lie down better.  Isn’t your room over there?”

Bull shot him a glare but looked down at the Inquisitor.  Probably not the best for her to be sleeping after smacking into him so hard.  He could at least watch over to make sure she kept breathing.  He scooped her up in a quick effortless motion, leaving Krem to gather her parchments.  Bull occupied an empty room at the top of the tavern, he decided it would be best to bring the Inquisitor there.  

Bull looked at her in the early moonlight, Lethea was looking more worn than he had last seen her outside of battle.  The fabric of her night clothes was thinner than a thought, fueling a conflict in his brain.  Bags under her eyes and skin verging on sallow, but she was still dainty and beautiful.

 _She really isn’t getting any sleep, I wonder if unconsciousness counts_. He thought just a moment before she began to stir.

Lethea’s eyes fluttered open and she grasped her head.  

“Guh,” she muttered, rolling her face into a pillow. “Mff flffle blff”

“Sorry, boss didn’t catch that.” Bull said taking a seat on his bed near her.”

She rolled over rubbing her temples.

“Has anyone ever told you how solid you are?”

“I...um well no, but thanks? I think?” Bull saw her eyeing him under a hood of her fingers.  “Are you alright? What were you doing?”

“Ugh.” Lethea threw her hands up above her head in exasperation.  “The advisors are obsessed with micromanaging, there’s a magister on the loose, so Dorian’s going to drag his name through the mud, but everyone needs something, what is Cole EVEN? And now my plant’s going to die, but I can’t sleep anymore! Ma ghilana mir din'an!”

She may as well have spoken complete elvish to him.  Was that even a sentence to her? Oh Maker, how hard had she hit her head?

“Um, I’m sorry?” Bull inched toward her experimentally.  “Come again?”

“I...just...can’t.” She said, throwing an arm over her eyes.  “Every decision gets someone somewhere killed, by the Void, my simply breathing is getting someone killed.” Lethea looked at him in earnest.  “How does anyone lead something as big as this? How in Thedas do they know?!”

The expression of exhaustion and panic was too much for Iron Bull.  This dainty thing looked like she may actually break.  

“One thing at a time.” He moved errant hair out of the way of her face.  “Let’s make sure you didn’t knock yourself too hard.”  He ran his fingers over the back of Lethea’s head, threading them through her hair.  She winced a bit, but keeping her resting would stave off this mild concussion.  He checked over her face and found a small parchment cut on her cheek.  She shrugged it off.  He felt her eyes on him, darting up and down his body.  Bull absentmindedly traced the pattern on her cheek to the corner of her lip.

_Secret keeper.  What secrets do you keep Lavellan?_

She caught his finger with her lips, kissing the tip.  Then she dragged her tongue along it and sucked on him down to the first knuckle.  The sensation shot to his groin, he had to withdraw.  Does she know what she’s doing?

“I’m sorry! I just…” She sat up quickly, immediately regretting it, feeling the room spin. “You never ask for anything, you’re patient and nothing is pressing.”  She looked at him and offered a small nervous smile.  “It’s nice.”

“Heh, that was...hot.  Not something I expected at all.”  

“I read it in one of the books Cassandra reads, well that Varric wrote.”

Bull filed that away for hilarious information later.  He leaned in close, towering over her.  Lethea gave a small gasp and fell back on her elbows.

“This is what you want? Are you sure you know what you are asking?”

Lavender eyes scanned the whole of his body and Lethea licked her lips.

“You’re...what I ask for...behind those large windows...before dawn breaks.”  

He does not bite back a feral growl as he claims her mouth.  He slides so easily against her soft secret-keeping lips.  His large hand is supporting her head off the pillows, moving her in time with him.  Their tongues exploring the other, memorizing how the other feels.  Her hands are moving wildly, finally settling on his neck, the only thing she can get them around.  Bull’s hand moves into her hair, tilting and pulling slightly to expose her pristine neck.  He runs his tongue along a tattoo that snakes down the expanse and ends at her collarbone.  She moans as he sucks gently.  

“Oh gods, I beg you mark me up everywhere.” Lethea says breathlessly.

Her words quicken his pulse and he sucks harder.  The bookish elf continues to surprise him. With his other free hand, Bull runs his hand along her side through the thin fabric.  He can feel how warm she is under it, it is nothing yet something in the way of feeling her skin.  

“May I remove this?” He asks breathily in her ear, hand tugging with controlled gentleness at the delicate fabric.  Before she can answer, he offers an incentivising lick from lobe to tip of her pointed ear.  She shudders as her skin prickles and begins to nod.    He lifts the garment over her head and reveals her freckled skin in the moonlight.  While an absolute pleasure to look at, Bull loves and worries about how small she is against him.  As he is pausing to admire her, Lethea moves to fumble with his pants.  He catches her hands.

“I don’t think you are ready for that.” He squeezes her hands with gentle warning.

“Well at least let me be the judge of that.” Lethea says in defiance working free of his grasp and fighting the laces free.  Bull sighs and helps her, he shakes off his shoulder armor as well.  As everything comes free he hears a small gasp from the elf.  There’s no doubt he’s hard for her at this very moment and he can only imagine how she must feel.  To his surprise, her expression is something he hasn’t seen on her in a while, curiosity is lighting up her eyes.

“See, it’s ok.” Bull says as he moves over her, pressing her chest with his chest pretending to crush her gently.  She is kissing his neck and running her nails against his sides.  He begins to kiss her pert nipple while his hand works on the other.

“I just...must... know...how much...I can fit...in my mouth.” She finally gets out, moaning each time he swipes his target with his tongue.  His cock twitches at her statement.  

 _This woman is how I will die_. He is very certain of it.

He grabs her hips hard enough to leave perfect imprints, he can feel her trying to push up into his hands.  He kisses her navel and she gasps.

“Another time perhaps, when you are less concussed.” He says against her skin.  Looking up at her face while moving ever southward, he sees her kiss-swollen lips in a pout.  Disappointment is erased as he exhales a warm breath on the whole of her sex.  She shudders a bit in anticipation.  He gives an experimental lick from bottom to top, pausing at her clit.  She offers him a strangled pleading noise. Grinning, he positions her legs over his horns and gets to work.  She’s trying to say his name, but he varies pressure and speed so that she can’t.  At one point he plunges into her experimentally to have her muscles tighten around his tongue.  She has given up on common language and he can hear broken elvish as her breathing changes.   He plunges one finger into her causing her to cry out ambiguously.

“Lathea?” He pauses looking up at her worriedly, the last thing he wants is to hurt her.  She picks her head up from the pillows and looks at him with heavy lidded glowing eyes.  Her tiny fingertips are covered in ice as she pinches a nipple and gasps for breath.  With her other hand glowing with power, she reaches down and caresses his cheek.

“If I didn’t like it, I’d make you stop.” She says in a near growl before bucking onto his finger and collapsing back on the bed.  Bull is surprised this display dominance from the tiny elf doesn’t make him come.  He resumes working his tongue with new fervor, Lathea notices as she cries out desperate pleas.

“Yes...like that! Don’t you dare stop!”  

Beyond his understanding of space, Bull manages a second finger inside her and let’s them dance along her nerves.  Her breath changes immediately coming in short gasps. She is arching off the bed, thrashing everywhere, shooting small derelict lightning into the walls.  There is a cry from her that echoes in the room, and potentially the courtyard.  Bull is not sure when his free hand made it to his cock, but he is coming with her, the sound of her release too much for him to bear.  

He’s not certain if the sparks are behind his eyelids or from the small mage.  He gently removes his digits from her and feels her shudder in a small aftershock.  He moves to the top of the bed and puts the boneless mage into the crook of his arm.  Lethea's breathing begins to settle and she curls up next to him.

“I have to know.” She whispers against his skin, smiling.

“Next time.” Bull kisses her forehead.

 

 

 


End file.
